CATEGORY: PROCEDURAL OBLIGATIONS - GENERAL
SUB-CATEGORY: TREATIES AND INSTRUMENTS
NAME OF GOOD PRACTICE: BALI GUIDELINES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL
LEGISLATION ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION, AND ACCESS TO
JUSTICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
KEY WORDS: Access to Information, Access to Justice, Implementation, Legislation,
Participation, Principle 10, Rio Declaration
IMPLEMENTING ACTORS: International Organisation: United Nations Environment
Programme; Nation States
LOCATION: Global
DESCRIPTION: The Bali Guidelines were adopted by the Governing Council of the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) in its decision SS.XI/5, part A of 26 February 2010. They
are a set of 26 voluntary guidelines that aim to provide general guidance to States on
promoting “the effective implementation of their commitments to Principle 10 of the 1992
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development within the framework of their national
legislation and processes.” According to UNEP, the Bali Guidelines “underline recognition of
the need to fill gaps in legal norms and practices so as to encourage broad access to
information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters within the
framework of national legislation and processes.”
The Bali Guidelines have led to additional initiatives. UNEP (in collaboration with partners,
including UNITAR and the World Resources Institute (WRI), a civil society organisation),
initiated a project to develop a guide that seeks to offer assistance to governments towards the
implementation of the Guidelines. The guide, which was developed with input from experts
and civil society, includes case examples and jurisprudence from a wide range of national
and international practice. According to UNEP, the guide will be translated into official UN
languages and widely distributed in 2015. In addition, the WRI and its partners are using the
Bali Guidelines as the international standard against which national laws can be assessed in
its upcoming Environmental Democracy Index (EDI). The EDI, which will be completed in
2015, is designed to measure country-specific realization of the procedural rights of access to
information, access to justice and public participation relating to environmental protection
through an analysis of national laws and regulations.
FURTHER INFORMATION: The Bali Guidelines are available at: http://www.unep.org/civilsociety/Portals/24105/documents/Guidelines/GUIDELINES_TO_ACCESS_TO_ENV_INFO
_2.pdf/; the draft guide to the Bali Guidelines is available on UNEP’s website:
http://www.unep.org/civil-society/Implementation/Principle10/tabid/105013/Default.aspx.